Medknow Publications and Staff Society of Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India
Abstract
Background: Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric
disorder that often tends to run a chronic course. The lifetime
prevalence of OCD is around 1-3%, which is twice as prevalent as
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Aim: To asses the family burden,
quality of life (QoL) and disability in patients suffering from at
least moderately ill OCD and then to compare them with schizophrenia
patients of comparable severity. Settings and Design: We recruited 70
consecutive subjects (OCD=35, schizophrenia=35) who met study criteria
between March 2005 and March 2006 from the psychiatric services of the
National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore,
India. Materials and Methods: The severity of illness was rated using
the Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S). Instruments used in
the current study were the Family Burden Schedule, the World Health
Organization (WHO) QoL (Bref) and the WHO - Disability Assessment
Schedule (DAS). Statistical Analysis: The Fisher′s exact
test/chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables and the
independent sample t test was used to analyze continuous variables.
Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare the groups after
controlling for potential confounding variables. Pearson′s
correlation was used for correlation analysis. Results: Overall family
burden, financial burden and disruption of family routines were
significantly higher in schizophrenia patients compared to OCD although
the groups did not differ with respect to other domains of family
burden. On the WHO QoL, OCD patients were comparable to schizophrenia
patients with respect to the psychological and social domains. On the
WHO - DAS, both the groups were similar in all the domains except
getting around. Conclusion: Severe OCD is associated with significant
disability, poor QoL and high family burden, often comparable to
schizophrenia. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase the
sensitivity among healthcare professionals to recognize and treat OCD